In December 2005 Halton Borough Council successfully transferred responsibility for housing services to the newly formed Halton Housing Trust. This transfer process was supported by Socitm Consulting. Using our expertise in managing large and complex projects, including the procurement and implementation of new ICT infrastructure and systems, data transfer, staff training and interim management, we assisted the Council in successfully maintaining and transferring its housing service whilst also helping the newly formed Halton Housing Trust to develop its platforms from which to improve the delivery of services in the future.
The project issues
Following a majority vote, Halton Borough Council transferred its housing service to a new organisation, Halton Housing Trust in December 2005. The Trust owns and manages 6,200 homes in the Cheshire towns of Widnes and Runcorn. Socitm Consulting won the bid to programme manage the transfer of Housing ICT services from the Council to the Housing Trust and to assist the senior management team in ensuring the maintenance and smooth transfer of services.
The Socitm Consulting solution
With responsibility for transferring the entire Housing ICT service, we created a programme to manage the procurement and implementation of new network and desktop infrastructure, the transfer of the Council’s Housing system, and the introduction of new HR and finance systems, for which we wrote the technical and function specifications. We also migrated all Council Housing data from existing systems and realigned processes to meet the requirements of the new organisation.
We managed the budget and work flow of the entire project, reporting regularly to the Programme Board using the PRINCE2 methodology. We created a governance structure to ensure consistent quality across all the projects. This included cross-programme risk management, prioritisation, business continuity and disaster recovery. Maintenance of the service was not compromised and the transition was smooth. We also supported the recruitment of the new Head of ICT and managed the contracts and created SLAs with both new and transferring suppliers, ensuring they were sufficiently flexible to accommodate the new organisation’s potential future requirements.
We engaged in an intensive skills transfer programme, to ensure senior management brought a programme and project management culture into the organisation and staff were fully trained in the new systems and processes.
The benefits to the client
Our expertise in large scale programme management enabled the Council to devolve responsibility for managing a complex project with required safeguards, ensuring management by exception. This enabled the senior management team to focus on the non-technical aspects of the transfer, a major benefit as much had to be achieved very quickly and this put pressure on the small, but able, management team. We were able to deliver the programme to budget and to deadline. We put in place elements that would ensure ongoing robust and quality practices such as our proven smart procurement framework which offers both best value and flexibility. We streamlined processes in order to maximise benefits within the new organisation and our focus on skills transfer and communication ensured staff were ready for change and tenants were fully engaged with the process. As a result, the Trust was optimally placed to deliver effective customer services from the beginning, with the potential to develop and improve customer service delivery in the future.
Project identification
Client organisation: Halton Borough Council (and subsequently Halton Housing Trust)
Client contact: Nick Atkin, Chief Executive – Halton Housing Trust, 0151 510 5101, nick.atkin@haltonhousing.org
Lead consultant: vikki.wide@socitm.gov.uk
Project no: 5068